Personal transportation vehicles such as motorized wheelchairs or scooters are commonly used by persons having ambulatory difficulties or other disabilities. Personal transportation vehicles are often transported in a van, pickup truck, or other suitable transporting vehicle (hereinafter referred to as “the transporting vehicle”). Although compact, personal transportation vehicles can weigh several hundred pounds. Thus, some type of lifting device is usually required to load the personal transportation vehicle onto and off of the transporting vehicle.
A typical lifting device may include a horizontally-oriented arm having a retractable strap extending therefrom for lifting the personal transportation vehicle. Some types of arms may telescope to increase the overall length of the arm, thereby permitting the end of the arm to be located directly over the center of gravity of the personal transportation vehicle during lifting.
The lifting arm is commonly supported by a vertically-oriented column. The column can be rotatably coupled to a base secured to the floor of the transporting vehicle. Rotation of the column in relation to the base permits the arm (and the personal transportation vehicle) to be swung into (and out of) the interior or the bed of the transporting vehicle once the personal transportation vehicle has been lifted to an appropriate height.
Conventional arm-type lifting devices, in general, must be configured by the manufacturer or installer for a left or right hand installation, i.e., for installation on a particular side of the transporting vehicle. Hence, additional parts must often be designed, manufactured, and provided with the lifting device to facilitate the possibility of both left and right-hand installations. Moreover, reconfiguring the lifting device between left and right hand configurations may require that the device be returned to the dealer or other location where trained service personnel and appropriate tooling are located.
The bases of conventional arm-type lifting devices are often bulky, and may by subject to interference with the wheel well or other structure of the transporting vehicle. Also, most lifting arms cannot easily be moved to a vertically-oriented position (for compact storage when a personal-transportation vehicle is not being carried in the transporting vehicle). Moreover, the telescoping arms used on some lifting devices are bulky, and may extend only a relatively small distance in relation to the overall length of the arm due to the structural characteristics of the telescoping configuration.